Gabrielle Bisset shares how 'Vampire Dreams Revamped' evolved

4:00 PM

Gabrielle Bisset has taken the unofficial prequel to her Sons of Navarus series, Vampire Dreams, and made it official. Now, it's called Vampire Dreams Revamped. Here, she shares the story of how Vampire Dreams Revamped evolved.

Gabrielle: Sometimes the greatest things come from the smallest ideas. Last spring, I had signed a contract for my first novel, and after a good deal of celebrating, my friends and I moved into a creative period that spurred me on to write a story entitled Vampire Dreams. I chose to independently publish the book because it was a novella, and the response was amazing. Readers loved the hero and heroine, Brandon and Arden, their sensual love story, and even the antagonist, Vasilije.

I knew when I wrote Vampire Dreams that I would continue the story with Vasilije. My plan was to create a series around him, but never did I expect him to resonate with readers like he did. Very soon after the book was published, I began to receive e-mails asking me when he would get his own book. When I did guest posts at blogs, readers would leave comments telling me how much they loved him.

What made readers fall for him? More than anything else, he's a hedonist. Pleasure is his passion. Charming if he wants you but deadly if he doesn't, Vasilije is sensuality and danger all wrapped up in one gorgeous package. It was only natural that he would be the catalyst for my paranormal romance series, the Sons of Navarus.

With the release of the first Sons of Navarus book, Blood Avenged, last December, I knew the fans and I had been right about Vasilije. Set up as a book to ease readers into the series' plot of a vampire civil war between a group of warrior vampires called the Sons of Navarus and the Archons, law and order vampires who seek to rule their world with an iron hand, Blood Avenged was Vasilije's story and a very sexy start to the series. By the time Blood Betrayed, the second book in the series, was released in May, readers were telling me they wanted more. I'd just finished writing the third book and knew it wouldn't be released until this fall, but I wanted to give the readers what they were asking for.

From this came Vampire Dreams Revamped.

I had always known that the original Vampire Dreams was less than what I'd wanted it to be. The pressures of writing and publishing had meant that right after finishing that book I moved into the second and third novellas that would eventually join Vampire Dreams to make up the Victorian Erotic Romance Trilogy. And then the Sons of Navarus series began to take shape and that project moved forward. Indie publishing is nothing if not fast moving.

But when readers began to ask for more about the Sons, I found I had the chance to give Vampire Dreams what it deserved and expand on the Sons series at the same time. Revised to be longer and fuller, the new Vampire Dreams Revamped gives readers more insight into Vasilije, more of Brandon and Arden's story, and even offers cameos of two other Sons of Navarus. What had always been the unofficial prequel to the Sons series was now an official prequel.

The original Vampire Dreams will soon only be available as part of the trilogy, but it will forever be the first book that began it all. I've been fortunate to have such incredible readers who have fallen in love with my characters. Indie publishing gives me the opportunity to respond to them as they've responded to me. Vampire Dreams Revamped is my way of saying to them, "Thanks for being so wonderful. It means the world to me."

Readers can find out more about Vampire Dreams Revamped and the Sons of Navarus series at my website at GabrielleBisset.com.

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